americanmcgee posts

The world of fairy tales is full of heroes who courageously right all wrongs. Prince Phillip fought his way to Sleeping Beauty and awoke her with a kiss, thereby removing a curse placed upon her by a wicked witch. Little Red Riding Hood ventured deep into dark, foreboding woods to deliver a basket of food to her sickly grandmother. Cinderella lived a pauper's life, humbly serving her cruel step-mother and -sisters before her handsome was able to track her down and carry her off to happily ever after.

And then there's Grimm. Short and stubby with grungy clothes, grease-riddled hair, and a hankering for corrupting everything chipper and cheerful, the titular protagonist of American McGee's Grimm lives by a simple code: "Happily ever after ends now!" Armed with a corruptive nature that literally oozes over everyone and everything near him, Grimm has taken it upon himself to visit fairy tale worlds and wrong their rights rather than right their wrongs. A recent private demonstration of the game with GameTap Vice President and Content & Creative Director Ricardo Sanchez provided more insight into how Grimm will carry out his dastardly mission, as well as how PC gamers will get to join his cause.

American McGee's upcoming American McGee's Grimm, a collection of episodes that loosely parallel classic Grimm Brothers fairy tales, aren't just episodic, nor are they just digitally distributed and marketed at casual and adventure gamers.

They're all of those rolled into one.

Grimm, which will take place over 24 weekly episodes (roughly the length of a primetime television show's season), will be released exclusively through GameTap's digital distribution service. Running on the Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3, McGee's Shanhai-based developer Spicy Horse hopes to reach a very broad audience of gamers; thus their primary aim for the casual crowd. "I'd really like to see people who've never played 3D PC games before able to enjoy the story, visuals, and game mechanic," McGee recently told Next Generation.

McGee is grateful to and for GameTap, for he believes that without them, Grimm -- and his Spicy Horse studio -- would never have become a reality. "Ricardo Sanchez [Vice President of Content for GameTap] originally approached me to build something episodic and 'different' for Gametap," McGee says. "We [Spicy Horse] could not be happier. The experience has been one of the most rewarding and interesting game projects I've ever been involved with."

Look for American McGee's Grimm exclusively on GameTap this July.